Miniscope

A miniscope was a cylindrical plinth topped by a control panel. It had an audio-visual display like a dome turned on its side. (as seen in the Doctor Who story 'Carnival of Monsters')

Within the miniscope were a number of sealed habitats, often intended to replicate the native time and place of the specimens inside, though in some cases the environment mixed and matched specimens from various times and/or places to maximise the habitat's entertainment value.

The specimens were reduced in size by a factor of about 72 and kept this way by a compression field generated by the miniscope. Specimens extracted from the field resumed their original size.

Sentient specimens were hypnotically conditioned not to notice any signs that they might have been extracted from their native environment (such as access panels in their habitat) and generally lived through a specific set of events over and over again. The behaviour of the specimens could also be modified to a limited degree by the scope's operator, although the fact that (for example) artificially induced aggression affected intruders in the miniscope as well as specimens indicates that this was a separate mechanism to the conditioning. This control was only effective for creatures of some intelligence. Creatures like Drashigs were too unintelligent to control.

In his third incarnation, the Doctor found himself inside the miniscope of the Lurman showman Vorg, who was having difficulty in Customs on the planet Inter Minor. Vorg's miniscope contained a human sea vessel, the SS Bernice, its passengers and crew from 1926 Earth; a plesiosaurus from the same planet's prehistory. It also contained Ogrons, Cybermen and Drashigs. The Doctor extricated himself from the miniscope and returned all the specimens to their original times and places. Vorg claimed his miniscope contained the only humans in captivity.

Weighing in at 8li this is for display purposes only